In 2010 I competed in the Peking to Paris in a 1926 convertible dodge. I was keen to take Sam on that trip, but the organisers would not let him go although his 17th birthday was just 2 weeks into the trip. In hindsight it may not have been an ideal trip for a father and son team. At some stage I will finish writing up the adventures I had with my godfather Rob Blake. Its both an enlightening and horrific story, and thankfully Rob and I are still speaking. If I get a chance now the car for the London cape town is gone I’ll try and put it up here somewhere

We had made a lot of new friends and associates on the p2p. Not so long ago I had a visit from max Stephenson who was in car 11 in the Peking to Paris where he advised he had entered the London cape town rally with his son James.

Whilst all this was going on Daniel Ward of Car 3 in the p2p visited from the UK and mentioned he was keen to do a run from Capet town to London, at the same time I had met up with David,who had taken 5 MG’s from Peking to London at the same time as the p2p.

I thought he was nuts as my lingering memory of the P2P was not a pleasant one.

About 2 weeks later I received a call from Greg Newton from Sydney who competed in the P2P in car 90 who simply advised that he had entered the London cape town with his son Sam, and finished the call with a simple question ‘and well what are you doing?

Their was some conflict about what to do, as the trip from cape town to London was appealing but they weren’t sure if they could pull it together. So discussions were had with a loving and understanding wife, and permission was granted for the rally out of London. Sam finishes year 12 school in November and so it all just fell into place.

Of course the decision to enter was late, and if one checks the entry list there are some very experienced and dedicated entries, most of whom are intent on wining, both their classes and overall. This also goes for Greg and Max, despite Max somehow getting permission to take his 1923 – Vauxhall OD 23/60 that he competed in the p2p in. Max’s 88 year old car will sit on 110kms and is probably more suited to the expected terrain than many of the modern cars. Greg found the sacrificial car from the Holden dealer team round Australia rallies and has fully rebuilt that car better than the HDT team did close to 30 years ago. Greg is pretty keen to win, particularly after winning his class in the p2p. Well see the facts at the end

So a quick decision was made to take a 1977 280 Mercedes 4 door saloon, automatic. Some may think this as a strange choice, but when the first world cup rallies were run in Africa, they were won regularly by this very same model, as factory  entries by Mercedes, in automatic configuration.

I must admit that their was some influence on the choice by Murray Waite of MWAViewfinder, who is also the editor of the Mercedes Benz club of Queensland’s magazine.

So I found a car on the gold coast and purchased it for the princely sum of $2000. It was reviewed and then sent off to Wayne at Silverpoint Motors at Southport where a simple plan was made just to replace critical steering parts with new ones, replace any bushes or flexible based connections that might be suspect, and then we pulled off the hydraulic suspension and replaced that with standard Mercedes country pack springs and competition shock absorbers. The air conditioning was removed and a second alternator installed and a second battery in the boot. The distributor was renewed and the old one plus a fuel injection controller was added to the spare parts in the boot.

We also added a second spare tyre and a list of bits that would be needed for minor repairs

Their are apparently more than 2 million of this model Mercedes floating around Africa, many as taxis so we expect that if we do break something or have an accident a solution will not  be far away

We also removed the rear seats and installed a roll bar (not that the merc needs it but I saw some pictures of a cranky elephant rolling a car over with its tusks and then sitting on it when it tried to pass it on a narrow dirt road), and structure for the compulsory harnesses and a mounting for a spare radiator.

Wayne from Silverpoint Motors getting the 280E ready

Driving lights were also added and a range of electrical modifications were made to allow for the navigation gear we need for the trip.

I’m sure Wayne also tricked up a few others bits that we are not aware off.

A few carefully designed stickers were installed by Dino from Cult Graphics to cover up some marginal paint work, and their she is as you see in the photos ready to go.

Their is some significance with the car number 27 historically that i have to check out.